Differences/advantages between VISA, American Express and Mastercard?

[hello12345]

What is the difference between VISA, Mastercard & American Express? I know American Express is not accepted in as many places but what is the advantage of having a VISA card over an American Express/Mastercard or the other way around?

We are choosing out of two credit cards. One is a VISA card and the other is an American Express/Mastercard in one.

Does anyone have any advice or information?

Thank you

 

[JohnPhelan]

It all depends which sort of Amex, Visa, MC you have - because that determines how many frequent flyer points you earn per dollar.

In my case, my preferred card is an Amex (Qantas Ultimate Amex) that gets me 1.5 QFF points per dollar (2.5 points for QF spend). My other cards - used only where Amex is not accepted - are Visa and MC that both get me 1 QFF point per dollar.

 

[greenfrog86]

What is the difference between VISA, Mastercard & American Express? I know American Express is not accepted in as many places but what is the advantage of having a VISA card over an American Express/Mastercard or the other way around?

We are choosing out of two credit cards. One is a VISA card and the other is an American Express/Mastercard in one.

Does anyone have any advice or information?

Thank you

I think you'll find that other than many Amex cards offering more reward points per dollar than Visa/MC (because the merchant usually has to pay more to accept Amex), the main differences will be product specific features that don't really have much to do with the scheme of the card (i.e. Visa/MC/Amex).

What I mean by product features here is

• the annual fee
• amount of rewards points per $1 spent
• reward options - i.e. can redeem for a range of frequent flyer programs or just one? gift cards? cash back?
• customer service (or lack thereof)
• fees when you use your card overseas
• any included complimentary insurance such as travel, purchase protection etc

Other than some places not accepting Amex or applying a surcharge there is fundamentally no difference between the three card types as a consumer, other than product features that are usually applied by the company that issues the card (like the above).

Another unique product feature of some Amex cards (issued by Amex) are that they are charge cards - you must pay the full balance each month. This is really the only difference between the three schemes that I can think of.

 

[hello12345]

Thanks alot for your help everyone, i appreciate your advice!